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This artist’s impression shows, about 22 million light-years away, the supernova SN 2024ggi exploding in the galaxy NGC 3621. (ESO\/L. Cal\u00e7ada via SWNS)<\/p>\n
By Talker<\/p>\n
By Dean Murray<\/p>\n
Scientists have revealed for the first time a jaw-dropping early view of an exploding supernova<\/a>.<\/p>\n Observations with the European Southern Observatory\u2019s Very Large Telescope<\/a> (ESO\u2019s VLT) have revealed the explosive death of a star just as the blast was breaking through the star\u2019s surface.<\/p>\n It offers new insights into the true shape of supernovae<\/a> and shows that they display olive-shaped characteristics rather than spherical.<\/p>\n ESO said: “For the first time, astronomers unveiled the shape of the explosion at its earliest, fleeting stage. This brief initial phase wouldn\u2019t have been observable a day later and helps address a whole set of questions about how massive stars go supernova<\/a>.”<\/p>\n This artist’s impression shows, about 22 million light-years away, the supernova SN 2024ggi exploding in the galaxy NGC 3621. (ESO\/L. Cal\u00e7ada via SWNS)<\/p>\n When the supernova explosion SN 2024ggi was first detected on the night of 10 April 2024 local time, Yi Yang, an assistant professor at Tsinghua University in Beijing, China, and the lead author of the new study, had just landed in San Francisco after a long-haul flight.<\/p>\n He knew he had to act quickly, so twelve hours later, he had sent an observing proposal to ESO, which, after a very quick approval process, pointed its VLT telescope in Chile at the supernova<\/a> on 11 April, just 26 hours after the initial detection.<\/p>\n SN 2024ggi is located in the galaxy NGC 3621 in the direction of the constellation Hydra, \u2018only\u2019 22 million light-years away \u2013 close by in astronomical terms. With a large telescope and the right instrument, the international team knew they had a rare opportunity to unravel the shape of the explosion shortly after it happened.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n
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This image, from ESO\u2019s Very Large Telescope (VLT), shows a truly remarkable galaxy known as NGC 3621. (ESO via SWNS)<\/p>\n By Talker<\/p>\n The supernova\u2019s<\/a> progenitor was a red supergiant star, with a mass 12 to 15 times that of the Sun and a radius 500 times larger, making SN 2024ggi a classical example of a massive-star explosion.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n
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